Vignette: Cori Hills

"I've chosen to use my (negative voice) as an artistic tool for healing and self-discovery.” - Cori Hills

"Never Let Go" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x2ft, 2014, $2500 (Prints unavailable)

Visual art in the 21st century is constantly merging, different trends and mediums of expression connecting or even sometimes colliding into one another. In the work of Cori Hills we see a print maker embracing the bold, graphics of graffiti art in hand-carved woodcuts that are then worked into with acrylic and spray paint.

“My work is a psychological exploration of traumatic events faced as a child,” explains Hills. “Through word and image, I personify the co-dependent relationship between my inner demons and inner child. Each plank of wood is a conquest, one of which I have complete control. We all have that negative voice inside us. I've chosen to use mine as an artistic tool for healing and self-discovery.”

The “demons” Hills makes reference to manifest themselves in the images we see here, a satyr-like species that crosses a tiger with a ram, the figures seem more maternal than carnal, trading the satyr’s sexual appetite for an unsettling combination of bestial nurturing and violation. The facial detail is unique, a saddened visage carrying religious symbols that is filled with portent and dread, if not actual evil.   

In 2017 "Don't Bite the Hand that Feeds You" was included in Image & Word: A Text-based Art Exhibition at Kaviar Forge and Gallery. The pieces "Never Let Go," and "Meat," are currently at the Tim Faulkner Gallery as a part of their winter show.

Hills, a Florida native, moved to Louisville in 2009. Cori graduated from the University of Louisville with a B.A. of Fine Arts in 2017. Her specialties include printmaking, painting and illustration.

Hometown: St. Augustine, Florida
Education: BA, Fine Arts, University of Louisville, 2017
Facebook: Original Artwork by Cori Hills

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"Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You" by Cori Hills, Print series of 10,  black ink on Asian paper, 4x3ft, 2017, $400

"Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x3ft, 2017, $3500 (Prints unavailable)

"Meat" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x3ft, 2015, $3000 (Prints unavailable)

"Natural Perversions" by Cori Hills, Print series of 10,  black ink on Asian paper, 4x2ft, 2017, $350

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved

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Vignette: Elizabeth Foley

"Making the work becomes a journey of balance in and of itself." - Elizabeth Foley

"Enso-Clarity" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut and collagraph, 26x38in, 2015, NFS

“My work focuses on the interplay of lives and the concept of life-balance, explains Elizabeth Foley. “I explore the circle as a resolved but potentially irregular shape, representing both the balance and variety we all strive for in our lives. How is wholeness achieved and what tips the circle off center? What distracts from the main circle? Does wholeness come at the price of predictability?” 

Printmaking need not avoid explorations of depth in form and space, yet it would appear to be a common trend in contemporary art that prints be concerned with surface, texture, pattern, and field. Of course, this technical and compositional observation doesn’t restrict depth in subject or theme. Much to the contrary, the embrace or even celebration of 2-dimensional surface art by working print makers calls attention to the profundity of abstract and limited representational imagery. Foley shows how much the opportunity for suggestion and meaning in her work depends on the invitation to the viewer inherent in abstraction.

"Revolving" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut collagraph, 21x21in, 2017, $600 (unframed)

“The vibrant dialogue between shape, color, and pattern invites viewers into the work. I create spaces in which the viewer feels involved in the work: being both delighted and challenged. The colors activate the imagination; they influence and play off each other in order to shift and tilt planes of information. Overlapping transparencies create the illusion of distance and scale, as well as deepening relationships between shapes.”

Foley uses relief, monoprint, and collagraph techniques together to make unique images from the same plates – “a potential template for life balance”. She is currently exhibiting in "Venn Diagram" Work by Blake Snyder Eames & Elizabeth Foley, running through December 18, 2017 at The Grand Theater, Frankfort, KY, and will be participating in the Sixth Annual Black Friday Art Sale at Loudoun House in Lexington, December 1 from 6-9pm and December 2 from 2-7pm

Foley was also selected to be a part of the inaugural Hadley Creatives Program, a 6-month learning and engagement experience for local artists who are at a pivotal point in their careers administered by The Community Foundation of Louisville and Capital Creative.

Permanent Collections
Bluegrass Printmakers Cooperative Saint Joseph Hospital
Chase Bank, Cincinnati, OH and Louisville, KY Saint Joseph Jessamine County Emergency Treatment Center
Good Samaritan Hospital Southern Graphics Council
Kentucky One Health Alliance Tiger Lily Press
Keystone Financial Group University of Arizona
LexArts University of Kentucky Hospital
Littler Mendelson, P.C. University of Miami
May Department Store Washington University School of Art
Ohio University School of Art West Virginia University
Ohio University Alden Library

Hometown: Wellesley, Massachusetts
Education: BFA, Graphic Design, Washington University, 1990; MFA, Printmaking, Ohio University, 1997; M.Ed, Secondary Education, Ohio University, 1997
Website: foleyprints.com
Instagram: @foleyprints

 

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"Candy Colored Sky" by ElizabethFoley, woodcut, 38x26in, 2016, $900 (unframed)

"Coming Home" by ElizabethFoley, woodcut, 21x21in, 2015, $400 (unframed)

"Floating Candy" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut collagraph, 38x26in, 2016, $900 (unframed)

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more